The contrast
pressed so strongly upon the Master's heart as to awaken some of the
sterner feelings with which he had been accustomed to regard the new
lord of his paternal domain, and to impress his countenance with an air
of severe gravity, when, alighted from his horse, he stood in the hall
no longer his own, surrounded by the numerous menials of its present
owner.
The Lord Keeper, when about to welcome him with the cordiality which
their late intercourse seemed to render proper, became aware of the
change, refrained from his purpose, and only intimated the ceremony of
reception by a deep reverence to his guest, seeming thus delicately to
share the feelings which predominated on his brow.
Two upper domestics, bearing each a huge pair of silver candlesticks,
now marshalled the company into a large saloon, or withdrawing-room,
where new alterations impressed upon Ravenswood the superior wealth of
the present inhabitants of the castle. The mouldering tapestry, which,
in his father's time, had half covered the walls of this stately
apartment, and half streamed from them in tatters, had given place to
a complete finishing of wainscot, the cornice of which, as well as the
frames of the various compartments, were ornamented with festoons of
flowers and with birds, which, though carved in oak, seemed, such was
the art of the chisel, actually to swell their throats and flutter their
wings.
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